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The College News
VOL. XVIII, No. 21
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 19*2
Price 15 Cents
Lantern Should be
Less Safe and Sound
If Lantern Attempted More it
Would be<of Use as
Training
POETRY IS BEST WORK
(Especially Contributed by
Mr. E. M. M. Warburg)
Sometime this morning I Was
caught rather off my guard, for I ac-
cepted the invitation to review the cur-
rent edition of The Lantern, and, to
make matters worse, I said I would
get my copy in at eight this evening.
All this simply means that after hav-
ing read the contents, I am now forc-
ed to put into irretrievable print an
opinion which is so personal as to
have but little critical value. Time
hardly allows me to follow out my in-
clination to study the whole problem
of getting out a college magazine as
thoroughly as I might, and so "un-
biased by any real knowledge of my
subject" I hereby barge in.
Undoubtedly the editors of a col-
lege, magazine are faced by a terrible
handicap in that they are responsible
for the carrying on of a tradition
which naturally was not of their mak-
ing. The cover of the magazine, the
choice of print and printer, the gen-
eral format reflect this all too clear-
ly. The entire make-up is amusingly
out-of-date and unfortunately not
even consistently so. It therefore
seems a shame that, even oh the sim-
ple lines demanded, and even with the
natural financial limitations � that
the magazine might not be made to
give out a more distinct personality,
both by a consistency of type of one
sort or another, and by the simplifica-
tion and ordering of the general make-
up. For at present the reader's first
impression on seeing the magazine is
one of the lack of understanding in,
and a slightly shabby handling of, the
problems of presentation.
But we must not judge only on
first impressions, although a friendly
face always helps. What about the
inside or real body of this publica-
tion? It consists of an editorial, four
poems, an essay, a play, and two
short stories. But the extraordinary
part is that all these items only take
up some eighteen small pages, and at
that the poems never fill the whole
of a page. So that, in feeling the
size of the leaflet in one's hand, and
then in looking at the numerous items
listed under the table of contents on
the cover, one becomes rather worried
as to how all of this can fit into so
small a space. But lest you might
join me in this worry, let me add
right here,�it does, and, what is
more, through a printer's error, one
line is even repeated twice. So you
see, as the whole is rather a minia-
ture magazine, so each of its parts
is also rather miniature, giving the
general effect, upon digestion, of knrs
d'oeuvre8 rather than a complete
meal. But certainly length has but
little to do with quality, and so I
simply mention all this in passing.
Now as to the individual works!
First comes an editorial. which is
in the way of being an essay on the
paucity of good literature in this pres-
ent day. It is very well written, but
I could not help feeling that it smack-
ed rather of notes taken in a course
contemporary literature rather
(Continued on rage Five.)
on
GLEE CLUB ELECTIONS
President: Jeanette Le Saul-
nier, '33.
Vice - President: Virginia
Richardson, '33.
Secretary: Ruth Bertolet, '34.
Business Manager: Louise
Meneely, '34.
The Glee Club voted at Its
last meeting to give a large
sum of money to the Students'
Loan Fund in co-operation with
Miss Park's request for finan-
cial help this year in connection
with the awarding of scholar-
ships and grants.
� �International News Photo.
Requiescat in Pace
Varsity Dramatics
Enters on New Policy
Players' Club of 30 Members
Planned by Newly Elected
Dramatic Board
MARSHALL HEADS BOARD
At a meeting of the Varsity Dra-
matics Board last Monday night the
election of the Board and officers for
the coming year was followed by the
suggestion and adoption of a new pol-
icy, that of the revival and reorgani-
zation of Varsity Players. Under the
new plan a club of a membership lim-
ited to about thirty is to be organiz-
ed under the leadership of the Board.
This group is to meet once monthly
to hear special lectures, to read some
original work, to sponsor a class in
stage make-up, which will be offered
next year, and finally to take over the
function of the old Varsity Players,
which was to sponsor the producing
of one-aot plays throughout the year.
It is the hope of the Board that one
play a month may be given through-
out the year; two, at least, of these
will be three-acts, directly under the
supervision of Varsity Dramatics, but
some of the others will be one-acts or
bills of one-acts, and these, will come
under the leadership of the Players.
It is hoped that through the Playwrit-
ing class interest in original plays
will be stimulated and that many of
the short plays will be original. An-
other matter of the greatest import-
ance in the formation of this new
unit is that when a three-act play is
being considered, the Players will
have the power of suggesting plays to
the Board and discussing them in open
forum. The new Players will, as we
have sT&id, be a closed body, with a
definite membership. Applications for
membership may be turned in by giv-
ing one's name to Janet Marshall,
Pern West; Janet Barber, Merion, or
Leta Clews, Pern West. The Board
will pick the membership from these
applications and announce the mem-
bers' names in the Commencement is-
sue of The News.
The election of the new Board is
as follows:'
Janet Marshall, "33 ........ president.
Leta Clews, '33 executive committee.
Janet Barber, '33.executive committee.
Sylvia Bowditch-i '33... . construction
Carrie Schwab, '34 business manager.
Sallie Jones, '34. advisory committee.
Evelyn Thompson, '35,
advisory committee.
Barbara Macauley, 'SB?*
advisory committee.
Cannot Judge Nation
by Gov't or Army
Mrs. Slade Comes From Orient
at Time of Late Unrest
and Outbreak A
DISORDER IS TERRIBLE
LANTERN ELECTIONS
Editor-in-Chief: Leta Clews.
Business Manager: Anne
Hollo way.
Editors from '35: Catherine
Bill, Evelyn Thompson.
"One cannot judge a nation by the
acts of its government or its mili-
tarists," declared Mrs. F. Loris Slade,
Director of Bryn Mawr College and
Delegate to the Pacific Relations Con-
ference in Shanghai, speaking May
10 in the Common Room on "Reactions
to the Far Eastern Situation."
When she visited Japan last Au-
gust, Mrs. Slade noticed an unrest,
an expectation of trouble, which she
had not seen on previous trips. The
question of Manchuria was much dis-
cussed, propaganda was being used
insisting that Japanese interests de-
pended on a vigorous stand in Man-
churia, and Militarists, fearing the
impending disarmament conference,
declared that a real cut would place
Japan at the mercy of Russia and
hamper her in Manchuria.
The Japanese viewpoint is that ne-
cessity justifies expansion in Man-
churia. Although it offers no outlet
for population, the profitable r.-.il-
roads, coal and iron reserves, and rich
markets, make it highly desirable.
Freedom of action, however, is ham-
pered by the Nine Power Pact, which
was signed in Washington in lii22,
guaranteeing the integrity of China.
and also by the agreement-embodied
in the Kellog Pact, to use peaceful
methods for settling disputes.
From Japan, Mrs. Slade went to
Mukden, where she arrived September
18, the night when the railroad tracks
were blown up and the first fighting
(Continued on Page Six)
May Day is Reviewed by Mr. Frank Markoe,
Experienced Director of Dramatics
Diversity of Costumes Marred Perfect Handling of Masses on
Green and Colors Did Not Harmonize With
Backgrounds of Foliage
VOICES CAME OUT REMARKABLY CLEAR
Senior Orations as They
Leave Halls of Learning
Speech in Front of Taylor
Friends, Romans, and fellow Bryn
Mawrtyrs�unaccustomed as I am to
public speaking, nevertheless, as I
look down at your happy, smiling
faces, I feel impelled to say a few
words�a very few words�under the
tarnished green of Taylor's bell�at
the foot of Taylor's well-worn steps
�perhaps we shall never meet again
�for we meet today but to part�to
say farewell. Some to go out into
the great beyond, some to come back
to their orals, and some to keep bjjc1'
the clamorous owl that nightly hoots
and wonders at our quaint spirits.
Many people have asked me what
Bryn Mawr�a liberal college�can
offer to women in a world where spe-
cialized training is so necessary. And
I say, "Many things." In this time
of depression, a careful study of the
classics and of the best thoughts of
more glorious ages, will give us�in
(Continued on Page Four)
(Specially contributed by Mr. Frank
Ma rkoe)
After 24 hours of gentle simmering
in_the, cauldrort'of memory, the recol-
lections of one who saw his first Bryn
Mawr May Day last week leave some
things sunk "in the general richness
of the stew, but others gaily and
obstinately bubbling to the top of the
pot. And this reviewer-^-having had
it definitely impressed upon him by
your Editors that what THE News
wants is not that natural gasp of
admiration that the sight of so much
youth at play, and at such pretty
play, must of necessity give to the
senile and satiate, but rather a seri-
ous and detailed criticism�takes his
fate and typewriter up and skims the
cream of the aforesaid bouillabaisse.
For what but a mixed metaphor can
serve a mixed impression?
First, first, and then again first
was the superb precision and art with
which the very intricate evolutions of
the pageant on the Green were ac-
complished. I have never seen at any
similar show here or" in England, even
in its pre-war pageant-mad days, any
more capable handling of mass move-
ment. But what a -pity that so mas
terly a unity of movement shouKl
have been blurred by such a diversity
of costume intentions. I looked up
from the Green to the grandstand
and saw a far greater harmony of
color there, due probably to the fact
that the leading textile manufacturers
only release so many shades each
season.
At the entrance of the procession
the beautifully balanced regalia of the
heralds had led to high hopes. The
court of Elizabeth was obviously from
the costumers, from renting-by-per-
formance costumes intended to be seen
by artificial light and looking in the
spring sun quite desperately dreary.
Also, they were nearer her papa's
styles than Her Virgin Majesty's.
But the graciousness and dignity of
her bows certainly cast a glamour
over the scene, and one forgot the
"ungartered hose" of her courtiers.
Then came the white oxen and the
very clever color scheme of the May-
pole. The white oxen and the warm,
pale flower-swags. Lovt'ly. Then,
alas! hard, unblending small groups
with no interrelation of tone value,
though sometimes amusing in them
selves, and then, again, the finely con-
ceived black horse-drawn cart, poppy
and cornflower gyved, filled with Un-
sophisticated, beautifully attuned
blues, buffs and old rose of the reap-
ers from The Old Wives' Tale. Then
more discords. A tonality in color,
as in music, can only be achieved by
those who have mastered the mys-
teries of key and accord. And the
young spring green is an exacting
background.
And so down the hill and to the
plays.
Robin Hood, which I found the
most interesting, was notable for its
excellent groupfngs and tlve clear,
strong voice of its chief protagonist.
And fdt the ease with which it went
off. That same ease was perhaps the
outstanding feature jn all the plays.
Everyone knew not only their lines
but their business so well that there
was no trace of that strained effort
so often found in the best amateur
productions. The scene-suffered from
having the artificial background and
the costumes of the merry men lower
in tone than the surrounding leafage,
thus acquiring an.undue sombreness,
the one exception being the minstrels'
clear green and flame.
The Old Wives Tale I had never
seen done before, and I found it well
worth the doing and well done. It
again suffered from the dark leaf-
screen against a brilliant distance.
In it the notable playing of Sacrapant
and the lovely procession of reapers �
are the outstanding things one re-
members.
As You Like It was more fortunate
in its setting and more attuned to it.
The two shepherds and their lamba
made as pleasant a picture as one
could ask for, as did Phoebe wander-
ing off into the thicket, with her pink
cfoak sun-flecked and shade-patterned
by the saplings.
Here, as elsewhere, t could have
wished for the giving of the straight
speeches with more simplicity. The
Victorian pastoral players' tradition
seems to survive in schools and col-
leges, where any taint else of that
pleasant but padded period is laughed
to scorn. In the comedy Scenes, it
somehow does not seem to matter so
much.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, in
the Brook Hollow, also fared well as
to setting. The tiny Puck was en-
chanting, if somewhat serious, and
the tableau of the small fairy with
the enormous spear something never
to be forgotten. "I wish there could
have been a little more pageantry
here, as there was in Robin Hood.
It deserved it. And a larger orches-
tra and more voices to sing the parts
in Mendelssohn's "Philomel with Mel-
ody." The rustic comedians were ex-
cellent, and Bottom, entete or other-
wise, grandly sure of himself with a
real sense of burlesque,' and with the
rest playing up in quite an old-stager
manner. Were the acoustics especial-
ly good here? One hardly lost a
word. Quite an outdoor record.
The St. George Mlttipn went with
fine spirit. Having lived in Oxford-
shire and had the local Waits play it
in my front hall, I found, in an ab-
breviated form, the real spirit in its
performance. The dragon henceforth
is enshrined among the most amiable
and alluring of my supernatural ani-
mal acquaintances. But I missed the
quaint, traditional ribbon capes of
the champions.
When I tell the tumblers that after
watching their performance the lady
next to me remarked to her com-
panion that it seemed a pity to mix
professionals with the college girls,
they will feel, I hope, that they have
not labored in vain. And the morris
dancers, too, deserve all praise.
But last, and, to my way of think-
ing, certainly first, The Masque of
the Flowers, in the cloisters. The
music, the setting and its clever utili-
zation, the excellent dancing, the
singing and the beautiful and just
costuming set it apart to be judged
by a more exacting standard and to
emerge therefrom triumphant. The
rich coloring, so beautifully and so-
phisticatedly scaled, of the rout of
Silenus; the warm, dry glow of the
tobacco group, so simply and effec-
tively achieved; the carefully clashing
brilliance of the gypsies, and perfect
success of the shepherds were all
highly admirable. Primavera and her
Boreal and Gallic companions danced
finely, with a clear-cut, easy tech-
nique that was very satisfactory. I
congratulate Miss Barber, Miss Coop-
er �nd Miss Petts, who, I understand,
are responsible, without stint.
I can see it still: The sun on the
young leaves and faces; the rhythmic
perfection of the pageant on the
Green�this, one cannot over-enthuse
upon; the clearness of the players*
voices; the delighted audience; the
life-saving orange juice stand; the
attention of the.police to the plays,
even to the second and third show-
ings; the light and shadow on the
gray stone walls; the sense of every-
one being happy; the reapers; the
tumblers; the white oxen and the
May-pole; the sun on the May-pole;
the May-pole. .